Cuba’s Fidel Castro breaks silence on ties with US ‘adversaries’

HAVANA, Cuba — Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro ended his long silence over his country’s restoration of diplomatic ties with the United States, indicating that he backs the talks even though he distrusts politics in Washington.

The comments were the first by the 88-year-old revolutionary leader on the talks with the U.S. since the historic December 17 declaration that the countries would move to restore ties broken more than a half century ago.

“I don’t trust the policy of the United States, nor have I exchanged a word with them, but this does not mean I reject a pacific solution to the conflicts,” he wrote in a letter to a student federation read at the University of Havana. It also appeared in Communist Party newspaper Granma.

“We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the people of the world, including with our political adversaries,” he wrote.

A serious illness forced Castro to step down from duties as president, handing over leadership to his younger brother Raul. Two weeks ago, Fidel Castro sent a letter to soccer legend Diego Maradona to quash rumors of his death.